thinking of returning to eBay to sell????????

E

enasniearth

Well-known
Local time
3:32 PM
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
519
I have many items odd most not photographic
thought to list on eBay
I've been away perhaps 3 years now
they seem to have a new format
where they control more and PayPal is out
and yup as much as 14.25 % commission /fees
is this a real thing ? -has anybody had issues with them as a seller recently ?
is it worth it ?
or more just the "buyer is right no matter what."
 
Stopped using them years ago. Started using specific web sites for things I wanted to sell, and then Craigslist. So for photo stuff, this site or others I'm a member on. For motorcycle parts, one of the motorcycle sites I'm a member of, Jeep parts, Jeep forums, etc., etc.

Just had and seen too many bad experiences with the big auction site. No more for me.

Best,
-Tim
 
Double post, deleted the original as the second had my corrections. Apologies to everyone for any confusion. See #4.

I suspect my laptop hates me. That or it is Steve Job's otherworldly revenge on my overwordiness...

Timmyjoe (#2) said most of what I wanted to say, much more briefly. +100. Agree entirely with his comments.
 
Last edited:
I have dealt 95% with Ebay Australia, but their recent changes seem to be global. So my thoughts here will surely apply to Ebay everywhere.

I was not particularly happy with their new approach to payments. They seemed rather vague with explanations about how payments to sellers would be made. I also disliked the 15% commission they now take on all sales, altho' in retrospect I realise I would not in fact have been paying much more than the combined Ebay and Paypal cash grabs from my sales anyway. So that is now no longer an issue for me.

They were somewhat heavy-handed in contacting sellers a few months ago when they more or less "dumped" Paypal as their go-to payment agency and set up their own. All sellers were sent emails with a strong warning that if we did not sign up and give them bank details, we would be cut off. After due consideration I decided I had had enough with sales and dropped out. I still buy items and I use Paypal as they allow that option. I can also pay using a debit or a credit card but I am wary of this system as I dislike having third parties dip into my bank accounts to take what money they see fit. (Don't get me started on Amazon and their little game re this.)

My basic problems as a seller had more to do with Ebay than Paypal. I have always been happy with Paypal or payments and opted to stay with them, at least for now. When I see how Ebay's new

One bad experience with a dorky camera buyer in 2019 rather put me off dealing with them (Ebay) to sell anything other than dinky toy items. I have found it's okay for small items, like camera or darkroom bits, but now I would avoid putting up any big ticket items such as expensive cameras, given the number of scammers I've been told haunt the site, and the lack of protection by Ebay for sellers.

I am in occasional contact with about a dozen sellers of film and other photo gear. None are listing here at the moment, and they all say sales are too dismal and there are too many problematic buyers. Sadly, Ebay is now haunted by what we call the "desperate housewives" brigade who earn pocket money from home by buying charity shop items for $1 or $2 and onselling (or trying to onsell) them for $25. But our local charity shops now say these 'runners' (as they are called here) are no longer around as nobody is buying their tat on Ebay.

So for now, I am hedging my bets and waiting and seeing how it all works out with Ebay.

I now see fewer photo items being posted by Australian sellers. Ebay here still has many Japanese and other overseas sellers posting cameras and other photo goodies to sell - but the prices are too high for my liking.

So it seems a lose-lose situation for Ebay, sellers and buyers.

Time will tell and we will see. Best of luck to you if you decide to post and sell items. You could maybe consider trying to sell here on RFF as a first go.
 
The selling fee on eBay is high, but I have found the platform pretty easy to use and good customer service. I have sold photo items that I couldn't find buyers for on smaller forums. I've been lucky enough to not run into any issues though I know others have.
 
In my search for a Leica R8 or R9 in good shape I found that etsy.com had a lot of stuff for sale and what seems to be a small pool of buyers and sellers. Anyone here tried it?
 
EvilBAy and facepuke market place are run by ****ty «ai» algorithm. No humans are invited anymore. If something goes wrong you are going to be pooped by default and always.
 
So far, so good under eBay's current policy of directly depositing payments into seller's bank account, though it took a day or so for them to do it. And they make it clear how much of the price they deduct.

At least on my computer, setting up an eBay auction is a bit glitchy, with previously-entered fields of info sometimes reverting to defaults. And they really really want you to use the "Allow Offers" feature, so if you don't like that, best inspect all your newly-posted auctions to ensure it hasn't somehow gotten re-enabled. There's also some low-level nagging to provide (overly) detailed product information which may not be relevant for selling vintage cameras, but this can generally be ignored.

Have seen a dramatic decrease of non-USA bidders since pandemic, one or two items sold (too) cheaply, but on the whole I felt I did well. Overseas shipping is actually easier now if you use eBay's Global Shipping Program, as you only need to ship to a USA address, and eBay does the rest. But for prompter shipping overseas, you might need to use a service like DHL. Inbound packages via postal service can still be very slow: Small parcel from Japan took 12 weeks, letter from Korea, 18 weeks.

And this is not particularly new, but life is much much easier if you know size and weight of package in advance, as bidders will see correct shipping costs, rather than needing to contact you for a quote each time.
 
I sell a little bit of everything on eBay, there are minor issues here and there but I have no real complaints. The fees are high but on other sites even with fee-free listings the items don’t sell. For photo gear I get more on eBay than anywhere else so the fees are more than offset.
 
I use eBay for both buying and selling, and - although it does happen - I rarely have an issue. However, if I need to sell a valuable piece, such as a lens or camera body, I consign with Tony at Popflash. It's a flat 20%, but he handles the shipping and any customer issues; it's well worth the extra ~5-7%.
 
splitimageview said:
I sell a little bit of everything on eBay, there are minor issues here and there but I have no real complaints. The fees are high but on other sites even with fee-free listings the items don’t sell. For photo gear I get more on eBay than anywhere else so the fees are more than offset.
Click to expand...

Pretty much sums up my own experience. I have racked up over 1,600 transactions on Ebay, buying and selling, and it has been the easiest, fastest (because the amount of potential buyers dwarves all the alternatives) and, for me at least, the best venue.
It’s not perfect, and yes, the buyer is always right, even if they are crooks, so there is that, but it just doesn’t happen often enough to merit going somewhere else. If you have only sold 20 items on ebay and were scammed twice, it’s going to seem horrible, but that’s only because that’s a small sample size. That’s not normative, though it would be enough to put someone off. I don’t keep track but out of those 1,600 transactions maybe 4 have been bad, 3 buying (which I returned) and 1 or 2 selling. Of course you could get the dishonest buyer, so it’s always a gamble but the odds are heavily against it. Send the buyer a personal note when they purchase. Ship it immediately and pack it carefully. If you underpromise and overdeliver you will almost never have a problem.

It’s a service; they charge for it. Whenever I advertise something for sale here, or Fred Miranda, I list it at 15% less than on ebay, and list it on ebay a day or two later for 15% more if it hasn’t sold at either of those two places. Stuff sells quickly on ebay for more money, and not here about 95% of the time. Craigslist is going to be the same way. That’s what you get for your 15% as a general rule; you can not only list it for 15% more, to cover their fees, but it sells in short order if you have it priced correctly.

Just my two centimes worth. YMMV.
 
Dont expect a profit since fleabay takes that away...and naturally everyone is looking for a bargain. Expect to be relisting the item for a longer period if you want a fair sale price...

In regards to buying, in australia theres now import taxes which makes it less viable to buy imported goods so consumers are left to buy local due to import and high custom fees. Sellers are feeling the squeeze i feel...

Good luck. All the best
 
What is happening with PayPal at eBay?

I still buy things on eBay and I am set up for automatic payment via PayPal. I never had any problems. In fact, one seller I recently purchased from (in Japan) stated that they only accepted payment by PayPal.

Is eBay planning on phasing PayPal out of their system?

- Murray
 
I really like selling on forums like this one because I want to see good gear go to good people who will cherish it, take good care of it, and pass it along to the next person when the time is appropriate. And eBay's fees sucks. And ebay arguably illegally charges states sales taxes on international transactions. But for selling big ticket items that can go abroad, it's still a decent place.
 
cboy said:
In regards to buying, in australia theres now import taxes which makes it less viable to buy imported goods so consumers are left to buy local due to import and high custom fees.
Click to expand...

Not sure about import taxes. I think you mean GST of 10% which is now charged on all overseas purchases. This has been the case for some time. When you do buy something from overseas via Ebay in Australia, the GST is automatically added on.

An added 10% is not really much for small purchases but on big ticket items (if anyone buys a Leica from Germany, for example, as one friend did last year) it certainly adds on to the purchase price.

After having read all the comments in this thread, I reckon I agree with much of what many have posted. Ebay is the best of a bad bargain.
 
Enasniearth, I hope you don't stop offering your Nikkor gear here in the classifieds. You have such lovely items.
 
pyeh said:
Enasniearth, I hope you don't stop offering your Nikkor gear here in the classifieds. You have such lovely items.
Click to expand...


I second this. In smaller niche communities like this, the seller and buyer both win by avoiding the fees of the big market.
 
I didn't realize what the concerns were that you all were talking about until I went to eBay this morning to put up something to sell. Their new system is definitely something I'm not going to participate in. There is no way I'm giving eBay my checking account information! I don't believe they can keep this information secure, no matter how much they say the opposite.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top